The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to multicast routing in peer groups.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is an information handling system (IHS). An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Additionally, some embodiments of information handling systems include non-transient, tangible machine-readable media that include executable code that when run by one or more processors, may cause the one or more processors to perform the steps of methods described herein. Some common forms of machine readable media include, for example, floppy disk, flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magnetic medium, CD-ROM, any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium with patterns of holes, RAM, PROM, EPROM, FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, and/or any other medium from which a processor or computer is adapted to read.
Computer networks form the interconnection fabric that enables reliable and rapid communications between computer systems and data processors that are in both close proximity to each other and at distant locations. These networks create a vast spider web of intranets and internets for handling all types of communication and information. Making this possible is a vast array of network switching devices that make routing and/or forwarding decisions in order to deliver packets of information from a source system or first network node to a destination system or second network node. Due to the size, complexity, and dynamic nature of these networks, sophisticated network switching devices are often required to continuously make routing and/or forwarding decisions and to update routing and/or forwarding information as network configurations change.
One use for computer networks is the transmission of network packets from one source node to multiple destination nodes. One possible way of handling this is to have the source node create a copy of each network packet for each of the destination nodes and then send them separately over the network. This is typically inefficient when there are a large number of destination nodes. One approach that often improves the efficiency is to use a multicasting technique where copies of the network packets are made whenever routes to reach different destination nodes split. In this way just one copy of each network packet is transmitted over network segments that are shared between routes to different destination nodes. Support for multicasting has been incorporated in networks, such as the Internet, through the designation of certain destination addresses as multicasting addresses.
To support efficient multicasting, network switching devices, such as routers, typically employ a multicast routing protocol, such as one of the Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) protocols, to learn the routes through a network between the source and the destination nodes. As the routes are learned, the multicast routing protocol helps the network switching devices identify those routes that may take advantage of shared segments and/or shortest paths so that routing and delivery of the multicast network packets to the destination nodes tends to utilize the least amount of bandwidth.
These multicast routing protocols generally work well when used on networks containing stand-alone network switching devices. However, modern computer networks are increasingly being designed using groups of two or more network switching devices that operate as a single virtual network switching device. The multicast routing protocols are generally not able to recognize these groups of network switching devices nor adequately take advantage of the backup and redundancy advantages they provide to computer networks.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide improved methods and systems for multicast routing in computer networks with groups of network switching devices.